Penumbra (Spook Squad 3)

“There was a car in the area.” Marsdan shrugged. “They saw no one coming out of the building, and after gaining access to the apartment via the building’s super and finding the body naked and in pieces, they immediately secured the main door.”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. “Naked?”

Marsdan nodded. “The bedding was

rumpled. We’ve already sent it to the lab to test for body fluids and DNA.”

Meaning Douglass might have known her attacker extremely well. “Is there a fire exit?”

“Yes, but it’s alarmed. No one has come in or out of it.”

“No broken windows or anything like that to indicate entry from the rooftop?”

“No, sir.”

Then how had the murderer gotten in or out? There had to be something here, some access point Marsdan and his men had missed. “What about the air-conditioning ducts or vents? Does the building share a single system, or does each apartment have separate air-conditioning units?”

“The second option, I’m afraid.” Marsdan paused. “And so far, the only prints we’ve picked up are the victim’s.”

“Not surprising. Whoever did this obviously had it well planned.” Gabriel paused, remembering what Douglass had said about bringing research home. “Has she got an office? Or a safe?”

Marsdan raised an eyebrow. “Both. The safe was open, but our murderer set fire to the contents rather than snatching them. We’ve asked Forensics to sift through the ashes and see if they can discover what the safe might have held.”

Gabriel suspected they wouldn’t find very much at all. He looked past Marsdan as Illie came to the door. “Yes?”

“I found something you might want to look at.”

“What, exactly?” Gabriel asked, as he and Marsdan followed Illie through the living room.

“This apartment has a guest bathroom as well as a regular bathroom. It’s little more than a toilet and washbasin, but it’s situated on an outside wall and has a small, wind-out window which I presume is meant to give ventilation.” Illie glanced over his shoulder. “The window was open.”

“Big enough for someone to get in?”

“Someone? No. Something? Yes.”

Illie stopped in the doorway and Gabriel stepped past him. As his partner had stated, the room contained nothing more than a toilet and a basin. The soap sitting on the edge of the small metal basin was old and cracked, suggesting this room hadn’t been used in quite a while, though the toilet itself was spotless. The window above it was roughly two feet in diameter, which was certainly big enough for someone to crawl through if they weren’t so high up. With the winder in place, though, the amount of space the window could open was severely restricted. Windows and winders could be broken, of course, but this one was still intact. And right now, it was open only a couple of inches.

“Seems your people missed this,” he commented, without glancing at Marsdan.

“The open window was noted, but we are duty bound to assume human intervention first. Our searches are for more conventional clues and entry points.” He hesitated, expression annoyed. “We called you as soon as the other options were eliminated.”

Gabriel squatted and looked behind the bowl. “I would have thought the fact that she was torn apart precluded human involvement.”

“She was ripped apart?” Illie said, surprise evident in his voice.

“Yeah.”

“There are not many folks in the paranormal community who have the strength to do that,” Illie said. “I mean, bear changers would, but a bear changer couldn’t get through that window.”

“Nor could any of the big cat changers, though they certainly could tear someone apart. But there would also be tooth marks, and I presume our good captain would have mentioned it if something like that was evident.”

“He would,” Marsdan confirmed. “It wasn’t teeth, but the separation also wasn’t clean enough to suggest a blade.”

Gabriel shifted to get a better view of the S-bend area and saw something odd—a feather. A black feather. He frowned. Sam had mentioned that the man in her dreams was a crow shifter—coincidence? He tended to think not.

“Though of course,” Marsdan said, “the coroner still has to make her report.”

“I found something.” Gabriel leaned a shoulder against the wall and said, “Crimecorder, record image and location of feather for evidence.”